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Stern
Editor	Andreas Petzold, Thomas Osterkorn
Categories	news magazine
Frequency	weekly
Circulation	1.07 million / month
First issue	1948
Company	Gruner + Jahr
Country	Germany
Language	German
Website	Stern Web site
ISSN	0039-1239

Stern (English "Star") is a weekly news magazine published in Germany. It was founded in 1948 by Henri Nannen, and is currently published by Gruner + Jahr, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann. In the first quarter of 2006, its print run was 1.019 million copies and it reached 7.84 million readers according to the Media-Analyse.

Internationally, it is most famous for publishing the Hitler diaries in 1983. Soon after their publication, they were revealed by scientific testing to be forged. This led to the resignation of the magazine's editors and a major scandal that is still seen as a low point in German journalism. The incident caused a major crisis for the magazine. Its credibility was severely damaged and it had to rebuild reputation from an abysmal level.

In Germany, it is mostly remembered for the publication of "We had an abortion!" in 1971, initiated by Alice Schwarzer. 374 women publicly declared that they had an abortion in spite of the illegality at the time in West Germany.

Stern is known more for its excellent photographic coverage of stories than for the quality of its text.

Stern was founded in 1948 by Henri Nannen out of the youth paper "Zick Zack" ^[1]

The first issue appeared on the 1st of August 1948. This was possible after obtaining a licence from the British military government to rename Zick-Zack to Stern. ^[2], for which Nannen had taken over the licence a few months before. The first issue had 16 pages. The cover showed Hildegard Knef in hey.^[3]

In 1950, after publishing an article about the waste of money by the Allies, the British administration prohibited the Stern for one week. ^[4] In 1951 Nannen sold his holding in the paper to the publishing company Gruner und Jahr.

In 1968, Stern and Zeit published the Stern-Zeit paper for the blind that appeared every other week. In mid 2007 it stopped publication because of financial problems.

In 1971 Stern published "We had an abortion!", initiated by Alice Schwarzer. 374 women publicly declared that they had an abortion in spite of the illegality at the time in West Germany.

In 1978 Schwarzer sued Stern for sexism after Grace Jones was on the cover with few and sexy clothing that showed Jones' connection to BDSM.

In 1983 Stern published the Hitler diaries, which turned out to be faked. It was one of the greatest media scandals in Germany.

In 1990 Stern published the title story "I am a masochist", in which Sina-Aline Geißler discusses her literary coming-out as a member of the BSDM scene. This caused intense public debates. Radical feminists occopied the editorial office of Stern. Charges were filed, but had no consequences.

Chief publishers are Andreas Petzold und Thomas Osterkorn.

In 2006, a full-page four-color advertizement cost 50.900 €.

Stern is considered to be liberterian-critical, partially left-liberterian. However, it also publishes views and authors with economically-liberterian, conservative and left-wing positions.

1. ^ Stern im Schatten des Sterns, Die Zeit, 17/2000
2. ^ Jahreschronik Literarisches Leben der Uni Göttingen
3. ^ Interview mit Henri Nannen-Meine Stern Stunde
4. ^ Interview mit Henri Nannen-Meine Stern Stunde

• Website of Stern magazine (German language)
• R. Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Interview With Katja Gloger of Stern Magazine

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